GOING FOR GOLD IN ZAGREB, 1987
Entec has been proud to contribute to the production of a diverse range of sports events, from pro-celebrity tennis at the Royal Albert Hall to high profile boxing tournaments at Wembley. When 1987 came around, the company was honoured to provide lighting and crew for the 14th annual Summer Universiade, a.k.a. Univerzijada ’87 or the World Student Games, which took place in the Yugoslavian capital of Zagreb (presently the Croatian capital) and accommodated 6,423 athletes from 122 nations.
Towards the end of June, Entec’s crew arrived on-site at the city’s Stadion Maksimir to load-in and begin work on preparing the lighting infrastructure in time for the July 8th opening ceremony. Heading the crew was Dave Smith, who also manned a Celco 90 Gold control desk during the Games.
“Although we were responsible for the lighting that was scattered around the venue, the main thrust of our job was to rig the lights on an existing stadium floodlight tower,” Dave recalls. “And in doing so, we created the world’s largest Genie tower, which came down a darn sight faster than they went up.
“A local fabrications company welded a special frame for this on the ground and hoisted it up with a crane to attach it to the floodlight. That process lasted quite some time which meant the whole job got delayed. The Army worked as stage hands and I remember the Entec crew in harnesses, rigging 20 bars of six PAR cans either side of the frame overnight, with 10kW fresnels at the bottom, and cabling up around the stadium the following night to be ready for focusing.
“We would finish every shift with breakfast at Zagreb station which was the best place in town to get ham and eggs at five o’clock in the morning!”
RESPONSIBLE
Dave was joined on the three-week project by fellow Entec crew members Adam Stevenson, Jim Hubbard, Derek Watson, Paul Weber, Miec Heggart, Mike Townsend and Nigel Holbrough, the latter three being responsible for racks and control.
“The main people involved in the production were Serbian and it was through luck, the grace of God and a lot of help from us that their lighting designer achieved a result,” says Dave.
“We worked with a very good local lighting technician Peter Babosek who spoke Croatian and about five other languages, which was obviously useful.”
Each member of the crew was kitted out with a compulsory uniform of bright blue trousers, a white shirt and tie, and a smart jacket. “But they didn’t fit any of us!” laughs Dave.
“My jacket hung around me like a sack while Derek’s trousers were so short, his legs were showing at the bottom, but we took it all with a very large pinch of humour.”
